LEAHY MAY HAVE A LOT OF WORK CUT OUT FOR HIMSELF IF HE'S GOING TO COUNTER BUSH'S NEWEST STRATEGY TO PROTECT CORRUPT CONGRESSIONAL ALLIES

Patrick Leahy, the new Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, wasted no time going after two crucial pillars of the Bush Regime: war profiteers and congressional corruption. As Bush goes on an unprecidented firing spree of Federal prosecutors, including Carol Lam, who bagged Cunningham (an investigation far from finished), and otherwise ridding himself of aggressive U.S. Attorneys not in tune with his regime's highly partisan interpretation of law and order-- wait a moment and you'll hear about Debra Wong Yang, who went from prosecuting Jerry Lewis to working for the ultra-Republican law firm that represents him-- Senator Leahy is preparing an anti-corruption package that will extend the statute of limitations on "bribery, deprivation of honest services, and extortion by a public official" by three years. The goal is to make it far more difficult for congressional wrong-doers, like Jerry Lewis, Tom DeLay, Virgil Goode, Conrad Burns, John Doolittle, etc, to escape indictment, trial, conviction and, ultimately, prison for corruption. (And, unlike the legislation depriving corrupt officials of their pensions, this one is retroactive and can be used to go after crooked pols who were pillaging as far back as 2002.

Brian Beutler explains at Raw Story that "current law mandates that, in the absence of an indictment, a public figure will escape criminal prosecution or penalty once five years have passed since committing an act of corruption. Leahy's legislation, which is retroactive to crimes committed five years ago, extends that statute of limitations to eight years." That means the Republicrooks like Hastert and DeLay and Lewis will be liable to prosecution after Bush is out of office.

The solons with the most to loose if Leahy's legislation becomes law are the Abramoff conspirators like Tom DeLay, John Doolittle, Conrad Burns, Eric Cantor, Dirty Dick Pombo, Roy Blunt, Denny Hastert, Thad Cochran, J.D. Hayworth, David Vitter, as well as congressional operators who were taking bribes from contractors including Duncan Hunter, Jerry Lewis, Virgil Goode, Katherine Harris, Ken Calvert, Bill Young, etc.

Leahy's legislation also authorizes an additional $25 million per year for federal investigators and prosecutors to help battle corruption. Interesting that just as Leahy is giving them the resources they have been begging for, Bush is firing them and replacing them with overtly partisan Republican stooges who have not been approved by the Senate.


The most egregious case of unpunished contemporary congressional corruption is that of Jerry Lewis, once Chair, now ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee. With the possible exception of Tom DeLay no one was able to wring more money out of his government service than Jerry Lewis. By forcing one U.S. Attorney out (Lam) and luring one away with a cushy job that promises to lead to a lifetime judgeship (Yang), Bush has done all he can to make sure Lewis will not see the inside of a courthouse.

Yang announced, just before the election that she would be leaving law enforcement-- where she was in charge of the Lewis investigation-- to work for Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, a firm stuffed full of extremely partisan right wing hacks like former U.S. solicitor general Ted Olson and former U.S. Attorney for L.A. Robert Bonner. Last year the blue chip firm was enriched by over $800,000 in legal fees from... Jerry Lewis (who still hasn't been indicted).